Manchester United star Phil Jones ready to regain his place after nearing full fitness

Jones has made cameo appearances against Ipswich, Sunderland and Wolfburg.Getty Images

Manchester United defender Phil Jones has claimed he is "fit" and ready to regain a starting place in Louis van Gaal's line-up after having made three sub cameos in the last games in order to regain his full fitness. The 23-year-old centre-back suffered a thrombosis earlier in the campaign which left him on the side-lines during the first six Premier League games and the Champions League opener against PSV.

Van Gaal has not rushed his return to action by handing him some playing time as a substitute in the last games against Ipswich Town, Sunderland and Wolfsburg. But after stepping off the bench to replace Bastian Schweinsteiger during the Champions League 2-1 victory over the German side on Wednesday night (30 September), the England international has claimed he feels good and eager to regain a starting berth again.

"I am fit," Jones said to MUTV. "I got 20 or 25 minutes against Ipswich, 20 minutes against Sunderland and just under 20 minutes tonight so I am slowly getting back to it and getting my fitness back, and my sharpness back. I feel good, so hopefully I can just stay fit and integrate my way back into the side."

The news is a boost for van Gaal ahead of the Premier League game against Arsenal on Sunday (4 October) after the Dutch boss has been forced to restructure his defence in recent games due to the injuries of both Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo - playing Ashley Young on the right-side against Wolsfburg while deploying Matteo Darmian on the left to keep Daley Blind in the heart of the defence alongside Chris Smalling.

Meanwhile, speaking about the victory Jones said: "It was important that we got back to winning ways in the group after a disappointing start against PSV. We didn't start the best but I think we finished the game well, we were strong and got the three points."

"It was a difficult test because they defended well as a defensive unit and made it hard for us to score, but we created quite a few chances in the first half. We probably could have gone in 2-1 up, but overall I think we did well to take the three points."